Introducing Home

Home is a powerful idea. Although we often think of it as a quite private thing, humans have shared stories of home for a very long time. Loving, dangerous, full of freedom and restraint – so many questions are revealed when you think about what it means to be at home. Maybe there isn’t one place that you think of as home. Maybe it exists only in dreams and memory. Home can be as individual as your own body, and as shared as the planet on which we all live.

This year at Watershed we will be asking the question, what does home mean to you? Through a programme of films, immersive art, talks and workshops we will explore the many different ways in which people find, make, imagine, long for and escape home. We will ask when and where people feel they belong, how we inhabit our domestic spaces, what happens when our home is under threat and how, when our sense of home is so personal, do we find common ground?

You can find out more about all our Home events here (this page will be updated throughout the year).

We are very excited to kick off this week with First Friday – a chance to ease out of your working week and into the weekend with an informal networking and showcasing event. This edition is a collaboration with Diverse Artists Network and will feature a range of home related works-in-progress. And if you are just starting out on a creative career yourself our next Make Shift meet up offers a chance to connect to other makers and hear the story behind artist Nicki Kent’s project to build a home on Mars.

Our relationship to the land is explored through film in Off the Beaten Track, and more experiential artworks in Step to the Earth – book your tickets now. And throughout the year you can delve deeper with our Lunchtime Talks, which will pick up an idea connected to home from a different perspective once every month. We are delighted to begin with the wonderful Dhaqan Collective, a Somali feminist art duo who will share how they weave homes through material and song.

Keep your eyes out for much more as the year goes on. We are busy planning a Home Improvement summer camp for early career makers, fun workshops for families, Autum programmes in the Cinema and Undershed and an opportunity to apply to be one of our Winter Residents. Behind the scenes we are also doing home work with our creative community, and asking questions about how Watershed can be a good home - we hope to share more on that as the programme continues. And then bring it all together in a big house party next Spring!

We believe that home is something that we make together, so we will be asking you about your experience of Home with opportunities to share thoughts both in the building and online. There is a lot to think about and we don’t want to shy away from the tricky questions. But we also want to celebrate the joyful feeling of being at home and hope that you will find some of that at Watershed– a place where you might kick off your shoes, have an argument, make up, dance around the kitchen and find some escape from the outside world.

This theme has been developed with important contributions from many people, in particular we want to recognise and thank:
Watershed Researcher in Residence Dr Erinma Ochu

Pervasive Media Studio community conversation participants: Fozia Ismail, Ayan Cilmi, Jane Gauntlett, Jonah Ling, Constance Fleuriot, Camille Aubry, Deanna Rodger, Jack Lowe, Dave Evans, Emma Boulton, Erinma Ochu, Amanda Egbe, Lucy Reeves Khan, Nick Triggs, Olamiposi Ayorinde, Oluwatosin Olufon, Rachael Burton.

Watershed working group: Bridget Hart, Claire Stewart, Kat Garoës-Hill, Isla Williams, Lawottim Anywar, Tony Bhajam, Steph Read, Amy Rose, Cèlia Domínguez Hernàndez.